SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Until a couple weeks ago, Rich Beem didn’t know if he was going to play at the PGA Championship.

Good thing he did.

Beem, 45, shot a 69 in his opening round Thursday, his first sub-70 score in a major since 2006. He followed with a 71 on Friday to make the cut for the first time in the PGA Championship since 2012.

Not bad for a guy who has played only one tournament – the PGA Championship – in each of the last two years.

Beem took to Twitter on Friday to share his excitement: “Holy crap I made the cut!!! Thanks for all tweets, sorry I can’t reply to them all!!! Cheers!”

Saturday, Beem had four bogeys and two birdies for a 72. He was at 3 over for the tournament, no chance of winning, but assured his first tournament check since 2013.

Just don’t look for any comeback.

“As fun as this has been, this is the most golf I’ve played in a very long time and by the time we are done for tomorrow it will be like, ‘Thank you. That was awesome. I’m done now.’ But I’m hoping to go out and put my best foot forward,” Beem said.

Contending with tendinitis in his right shoulder, the 2002 PGA Champion said he was unsure if the pain would affect his swing at Baltusrol, and he didn’t want to go out and hit a driver 260 yards when “Rory McIlroy is hitting 360.”

“No thanks. I’ve got better things to do with my time,” he said.

But his shoulder felt better over the last few weeks, good enough for Beem to tee it up.

“I came up here a week ago and was able to hit golf balls and play 18 holes without it hurting so that was a good sign,” he said.

A full-time golf analyst for Sky Sports in Britain and very part-time golfer, Beem was given only five golf shirts from his sponsor, Horseshoe Bay in Texas. He didn’t exactly know how to take it.

“I think they were thinking I would wear the first on Wednesday, I’m going to go with that one, but no, I would have run out of shirts,” Beem said. “I had to do laundry on Thursday night. My wife did it for me and I just washed a few extra.”

Working as a television analyst even while competing, Beem was planning on wearing his Sky Sports shirts for the weekend, not his normal golf shirts, but he isn’t one to complain.

“It’s nice to put the other shirts on for a little bit, and now I have to go put the other ones on and go out to work again,” Beem said after his Saturday round.

Beem’s 69 in the first round topped that of Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Zach Johnson. That didn’t last and Beem wasn’t surprised. This was all about sticking around for four days.

FRANCESCO MOLINARI knows how to close out a round of golf. The native of Italy birdied the final six holes in a 2-under 68 in the third round. Molinari had two bogeys and a double-bogey before he started his birdie binge on No. 13. He birdied one par-3, three par-4s and two par-5s in his run.

Molinari is 1 under for the tournament, eight strokes behind the co-leaders, Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb.

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